He's a poet, he's a picker—He's a prophet, he's a pusher—He's a pilgrim and a preacher, and a problem when he's stoned—He's a walkin' contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction,Takin' ev'ry wrong direction on his lonely way back home.There's a lotta wrong directions on that lonely way back home.

Cisco Pike is a movie I've long wanted to see and it is because of this article that I learned of its release on DVD earlier this year. We watched it on Thursday last. The linked article is an excellent overview of Cisco Pikeand its history (and even quotes Roger's first novel). I think it pretty much played that part of the City of Angels as it lay in 1970-71, and when the movie was done I was most reminded of Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, released in 1973. It isn't as good a movie, but it deserved a lot better than it got.

In other news, beginning at 7:30 a.m. PDT on July 4th on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is a line-up of movies that mostly got what they deserved. I'll be watching on-and-off throughout the day asOliver,Going My Way,Meet Me In St. Louis,The Wizard Of Oz,Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,Yankee Doodle Dandy, andSergeant Yorkplay during a span of sixteen and one-half hours. I think I've noted before that I'm something of a sucker for father-son movies and the Jerry Cohan (Walter Huston) death scene in Yankee Doodle Dandy is my favorite movie actor's finest moment. But then, and I'm recollecting here, there is a British documentary on Orson Welles (shown by TNT in the US) in which the great actor-director says: No one ever acted liked Jimmy Cagney in real life and, yet, everything he does in the movies is right. ...or something like that.

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comments:

I'll have to see Cisco Pike. There is also another very good movie few people seem to know anything about: The Assassination of Richard Nixon staring Sean Penn. You can buy a used copy at Amazon.com for $4.05 ($1.55 for the dvd and $2.50 for delivery). Penn is an idiot, but he is still a fine actor.